The present invention relates generally to call processing, location management and personal feature specification/control. More particularly, the present invention relates to processing voice calls to or from computing devices connected to a data network and mobile telephones connected to a cellular voice network and how communication is managed between the networks.
Mobility is an important aspect of telecommunications services. Mobility management refers to the process of tracking and maintaining location information and status regarding a mobile communication device. For example, one of the reasons for the popularity of wireless telephones is that people who are highly mobile can still receive and place telephone calls from a single wireless telephone. Mobility management allows wireless telephones to move about within a service area while still being able to place and receive calls.
In addition to wireless telephones, mobile computing devices, such as laptop computers, palmtop computers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs), are becoming popular. Such devices are particularly useful for people who are highly mobile. These devices allow such individuals to connect to office networks while traveling. Mobility management with respect to mobile computing devices allows users of these devices to connect to data networks and to send and receive data while connected to the data networks from a location which is away from the devices home location.
One popular protocol for the exchange of information over data networks is Internet Protocol (IP). However, mobility management for such mobile computing devices presents a problem because IP was originally developed with the assumption that devices would be connected to the network at fixed locations. As such, a device would be assigned a unique IP address, which would define the device""s physical connection to the network. Since a mobile computing device is not permanently connected to the network at any single point, an IP address associated with the mobile computing device does not define the device""s physical connection to the network, thus violating an important assumption of IP addresses. Various techniques have been developed for mobility management as it relates to these mobile computing devices. One such technique is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,159,592 which uses a nameserver and pseudo-IP addresses to associate fixed names of mobile units with the pseudo-IP addresses. Even though the pseudo-IP address may change, the current pseudo-IP address of a mobile unit can be determined by looking up the fixed name in the nameserver. A technique called tunneling is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,362 which uses special routers to store current locations of mobile units in tables. When a router receives a packet for a mobile unit, the packet is forwarded, or tunneled, to the appropriate current location. U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,655 describes the assignment of temporary IP addresses to mobile units such that the mobile unit can provide the temporary IP address to another computer to effectuate the transfer of data between that computer and the mobile unit. These techniques provide some level of mobility management for mobile computing devices.
However, the above described techniques for mobility management for mobile computing devices focus on the data communication functions of these devices. However, it is noted that mobile computing devices can be configured with appropriate hardware and software so that these devices can engage in voice communication via a data network using IP. However, the techniques described above do not apply mobility management techniques to mobile computing devices being used for IP voice communication over data networks.
What is needed is an integrated mobility management solution for providing voice calling services to mobile computing devices connected to a data network.
In accordance with the invention, a telecommunication network node, referred to as a service node, maintains status information for mobile computing device which are authorized to connect to a data network and obtain services from the node. The telecommunication network node manages voice calls placed to or from the mobile computing devices. The status information includes registration information indicating whether the mobile computing device is registered with the service node. The status information may also include address information indicating a temporary address of a visiting mobile computing device.
The mobile computing devices may engage in voice communication with other mobile computing device or with telephones connected to the telephone network. If both devices are mobile computing devices connected to the data network, the service node established a voice call over the data network using a packet data protocol, such as Internet Protocol (IP). The service node may monitor the call and provide additional services such as conferencing.
The management of voice calls placed to or from the mobile computing device includes determining whether a called mobile computing device is registered with the system. If the mobile computing device is registered, the service node establishes a voice path with the mobile computing device via the packet data network. If the mobile computing device is not registered, the service node looks up a mobile identification number associated with the mobile computing device and initiates a call to the wireless telephone associated with the mobile identification number via a wireless communication network.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the service node manages voice calls between mobile computing devices connected to the data network via a packet data protocol and telephones connected to the telephone network via a circuit switched protocol. The service node acts as a gateway arid translates between the packet data protocol and the circuit switched protocol so that the users of the mobile computing device and telephone can engage in a voice call.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a personal information manager application executing on a mobile computing device controls call processing preferences for the mobile computing device and associated wireless telephone.
These and other advantages of the invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by reference to the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.